Star Wars: Pariah
by Archangel222
Summary: the clone wars Rage on but the war shall be over sooner than anyone realizes. on an outpost in the outer rim there is one Jedi who'll bend or break any rule of the code so the republic will win. but complications soon come to light when he finds there is more going on then he first realized. (my Second fanfic and i have been working on if for a while) (updates at Random)
1. Prologue

**_Star Wars: Pariah_**

Macen knew he didn't have much time. Whatever happened to the rest of the Jedi was going to happen to him. He could already feel the Darkside surrounding him and the void in the force growing larger as he hastily ran towards the medical tent.

Stitches was still packing up his equipment ever since they got back from the compound. With the news of Count Dooku's Death and the rest of the Separatist leaders being moved to Mustafar, he knew all they had to do was get back to Coruscant tell the republic the news then the war would be over.

'Finally!' he thought to himself as he was stacking the medical scanners against the corner of the Tent.

'after three long years, it would all be over in a matter of hours.'

He noticed Macen briskly walking towards the little girl and start to unhook her from the Machines and IV's.

"Macen?" He Jumped upon hearing his name. he whipped around to look at Stiches, anxiety and fear written all across his face.

"Stitches!... What are you doing here!?"

"What do you mean what am I doing here? This is my Work station, I'm supposed to be here. More importantly what are you doing here?"

"I'm Just Grabbing the Kid, getting her prepped for the Trip back to Coruscant in the Emergency shuttle." Stitches looked at Macen with concern and Confusion.

"Sir, that shuttle is for emergency use only. Besides, Goodbye has the Communications repaired. I bet he's calling in a shuttle to come and pick us up as we speak."

That only seemed to put Macen more on edge. He immediately disconnected the remaining IV's and shut down the Rest of the Machines that were hooked up to the kid.

"Macen!? What the Hell are you doing, you can't just unhook her like that, you could have just caused some serious brain damage!"

But Macen wasn't listening. He grabbed the Child and bolted out the tent.

'what the Hell was that about?' his thought was interrupted when his Holo comm beeped. he took it out of his pocket and activated it. The tiny image of Ace stood in front of him.

"this is Stitches, Go ahead."

Ace had no reply, he simple nodded his head, and Stitches understood. He put away the Comm and grabbed his Helmet from the Table. He pulled out his DC-17 Blaster Pistol and charged the weapon.

Macen Hightailed it to the emergency shuttle with the sedated Kira in his arms. The republic had granted them the shuttle in case there was Trouble on Ord Mantell, and that if the situation was something, they couldn't handle they could send the designated survivor back to coruscant for help.

Luckily the situation was handled. unfortunately, the situation that was currently happening was something that no one could help with.

Macen walked up the ramp of the Shuttle and set Kira down in the medical bay. He told the Medical Droid to look after her until he got back. He walked out of the Med bay and locked the door behind him. He started to walk to the cockpit to begin preparations for takeoff. But before he reached the door, he felt the Encompassing Presence of the Darkside once again, this time it was outside the shuttle itself. He stretched out his senses and felt his entire company of men converge on the shuttle, with the darkness utterly surrounding their life energy.

What little time he thought he had, had just run out. Macen let in a deep breath and let it out again.

'_There is no Emotion; There is Peace.' _

He thought to himself as he unclipped his saber from his belt, his thumb over the switch and his heart racing. He turned towards the entrance and started to walk down the ramp; from what he was sensing they had him surrounded. He activated his saber and the Bright green blade sprung from the hilt. He sensed it before he heard it; Macen quickly brought up the saber in a sloppy Makashi stance to block the blaster bolt coming towards him.

He flicked the bolt towards the ground and ran down the rest of the Ramp. he made his way to the center of where his troops would be coming from. It wasn't long before dozens more bolts came flying his way; luckily, he had brief moment to take a Proper stance with Soresu and start to deflect them more effectively. As each bolt flew towards him, he could feel his troops getting closer; and as they got closer, the bolts were getting harder to deflect. He looked to his left and saw a gap in their perimeter and made his move. He jumped into the air and landed behind one of his men in a crouching position.

'_there is no ignorance; there is knowledge.'_

Macen Sprang up from his crouch and flicked the blade in an upward motion and cut the Trooper in half diagonally. For a full second the trooper stood perfectly still before the upper half of his body slid to the ground. The foul smell of melted armor and burning flesh entered his nose; he looked down at the body for a brief moment to see who he had cut in half. Jester's paint design on his helmet was distinctive and was easily recognizable; very easily recognizable. Macen sensed the rest backpedaling towards him and began to shoot again. He used the force to speed his reflexes and movement and attack them head on. He dodged the first bolt the came at him, then deflected the second; the third he sidestepped to the right, walking to into the fourth that grazed his left thigh.

'_there is no passion; there is serenity.' _

Pain coursed through his leg; but he couldn't stop.

'Not now!' he thought as he lunged the blade towards the closest trooper, and pierced his stomach. Macen looked up and saw Frag starting to slump forward very slowly. A soft groan escaped from the helmet comm as his head slumped forward further onto the blade. Then he saw Stitches on his left side. Macen ripped the blade out the side of frags stomach, leaving a half cut up corpse behind him. With one swift motion; sliced Stitches head clean off his shoulders. The head fell back and the body fell forwards. The smell of Burning armor and flesh was ever present in his nose and in his mind. He heard more footsteps approach him from the right front. He jumped towards the three troopers and brought the blade down onto Sparrow, and cleaved him in half from the head down. the other two pointed their blasters at him and fired.

Macen brought up his saber and deflected the bolts back at the troopers killing them both with their own blaster bolts. He heard another blaster bolt coming towards him from behind but couldn't turn around and deflect it in time. The bolt scorched his right shoulder making him almost drop his blade; he turned around to find four more troopers in front of him. Macen flung his saber and jumped to the left. he used the force to guide the saber towards his attackers, the blade spun around like a ring of death as it cut through all four troopers. Macen summoned the Blade back to his hand and walked over to them. Their cauterized bodies stank like the rest burning flesh and armor, He didn't recognize the other three but the fourth he did. Ace was lying on the ground his body in two pieces with his hand still clutching his blaster.

Macen ran further into the camp towards the communication dish. He Sensed them before they fired, four approaching him from the front and five from behind. He jumped over the volley of blaster fire towards the front and landed behind the four troopers. He deactivated his saber and grabbed the closest troopers' arms and forced him to fire at the two on his left while Macen kicked the one on his right before letting go of the trooper's arms and snapping his neck. Macen threw his saber and activated it as soon as it was close to his chest at the last one on the ground. He summoned the saber back into his hand took his Soresu stance again and started deflecting blaster bolts being fired at him by the remaining five. On the ground Macen saw long metal rods that were spare parts for the communications dish to his right. While he was still deflecting, he used the force to lift one of the rods into the air. As he was concentrating on the rod his defense started to falter and two bolts hit him the leg and chest knocking the wind out of him and forcing him to his knees. It was now or never. He threw the rod at them with the full power of the force behind it and it impaled the remaining five and stuck them to the ground.

'_There is no death; there is only the Force'_

He clutched his chest tried to breath. He threw off the Jedi armor and slowly started to take off the robes underneath to inspect the burn. it was only a centimeter deep and it was already cauterized, it was painful but not fatal. Macen pulled himself off the ground and slowly started to made his way back to the shuttle. The heavy breathing after the battle made his chest hurt and walking on his legs felt like sheer agony with each step. He felt drained of all feeling in both of his legs by the time he reached the edge of camp, but kept to his march back to the shuttle. He saw the ramp in sight and made his way towards it. he was almost to the edge of the ramp, when he felt the cold steel muzzle of a blaster on his lower back.

"YOU DAMN TRAITOR!"

Macen turned his head to look at Bruiser; his hands were shaking and he could feel the blaster jitter on his back. he figured he would have less than a split second to do something before Bruiser shot him. Macen activated his saber and with one smooth motion cut off bruisers' hand at the wrist; a blaster bolt shot off and grazed off Macens side. Bruiser was on his knees screaming in agony at the loss of his hand; Macen lifted the blade over his heart and plunged it through bruiser. He gave off a soft groan and stood perfectly still as the blade pierced his heart; Macen deactivated the blade and watch Bruiser fall to the ground with a loud thud.

"There is no Death; There is Only the Force" Macen said aloud to the corpse. He turned around and continued his agonizing walk up the ramp and into the ship. Unlocked the Med bay to find Kira still sound asleep; he walked over to one of the cabinets and grabbed as many kolto syringes and Bacta patches he could find. He made his way to the cockpit and sat down in the pilot's chair locking the door behind him. He removed his robes until he was down to his small clothes and started to patch himself up; He applied the syringes to the more grievous wounds and the patches to the minor ones. Once he was finished grabbed his saber and held up his right arm. The burns that he made on his right shoulder had healed up nicely. He took the hilt and activated the blade; Macen started to make small burn wounds down his right arm all the way down to his wrist. Twenty burns for twenty of his men; men he promised he would help end the war with them, twenty he men he fought and bled with, and twenty men that he would have gladly given up his life to make sure they were okay and safe. Twenty men that he murdered in order to save his own life. As he made the last burn just above his wrist, tears began to stream down his face,

"why did it have to be them or me? WHY!? WHY!?"

Macen threw his saber across the room and broke down crying in the pilots' chair. It would be the longest night of his life. And an even longer rest of his life.


	2. Welcome To Ord Mantell

_**Chapter: 1**_

It was a cold day on Ord Mantell, winter was settling in again as it had the previous year. Macen Towbur was Crouching next to his Second in command at the Valley overlook scouting for activity. Macen was in his early to mid-twenties, with Thick curly Brown hair tied in the back with pale skin, and dark green Eyes. He wore the Robes of the Jedi Order underneath the mismatched parts of his own Jedi armor and the Clone armor he picked up from his fallen comrades. It has been 3 years since the Clone Wars began with Count Dooku and several members of the senate seceded from the Galactic Republic to form the Confederacy of Independent Systems.

3 long years of battle and misery with no end in sight. Macen was growing tired of war, watching the men under him perish from senseless killing, watching as the Jedi Order was fracturing with each victory and defeat.

"What do you see Ace?"

"Nothing sir. Not a Kriffing thing." Ace Replied Promptly.

Ace was Macens second in command that got his nickname by being the best shot in the Whole squad, not to mention also being the best pilot.

"Well we wouldn't be here in the first place if there was nothing. Keep searching." Macen walked from the valley overlook back to the base.

"Commander! Do you have a minute sir?" Bruiser said when he arrived back.

"Sure, I have a minute to spare Bruiser, what do you need?"

Bruiser was a Corporal in the Grand army of the Republic that got sent To Ord Mantell a month ago from Finn Ertay's Command after he disobeyed a direct order from the General. That however was not an uncommon theme for most of the men Under Macens command.

"Sir, our long-range communications are still down and we haven't received any new orders from the republic, sir."

"Yes, Bruiser I'm aware that the communications are down, I have Goodbye working on it now. Why is it important that the communications are down?" Macen Asked giving him a confused look.

"Sir, Ord Mantell is… to put it bluntly sir. It's a waste of all of our time. We should be off on the front lines on Mygeeto or Kashyyyk, helping our brothers, Sir."

"Tell me Bruiser, what does this opinion have to do with our communications being down?"

"Sir?"

"What I'm asking Corporal why do our long-range communications need to be repaired right at this very moment?"

"Because sir without our communications we have no way to contact the Republic. Besides we should be taking the fight to the Clankers not sitting around here waiting for the grass to grow, Sir." Bruiser was a shiny when he was transferred to Ertays unit, and by most standards amongst the Clones he still was, despite his rank.

"We are here because this is where the Jedi council and the Republic want us to be; besides Ord Mantell isn't exactly deserted. We received Intel that there was a separatist operation going on down here. And we need to maintain radio silence. Nevertheless, the communications will be repaired in due time." Macen said to his subordinate that gave no room for argument. "May I be relieved sir? I have been on watch duty in the south for almost 16 hours sir and I would like to get some rest, Sir!" Bruiser said with a hint of Exhaustion and frustration in his voice. Macen understood his annoyance and his frustration about the assignment, and in some aspects, he agreed with him. But now was not the time to rebel against orders. "Granted." He watched as the Corporal walked away from his commander, dragging his feet behind him. He may have been just sent here, but Macen knew that he had seen enough horror and pain to last until his final days.

Macens squad comprised of mostly Trouble makers and Misfits from other Legions and battalions, and they all got sent to him because of his own reputation. He wasn't a bad commander or even a bad leader, what he was however was a terrible Jedi.

"_Commander!"_ Ace reported over the radio.

"What is it Ace?"

"_We have movement in sector 4_."

"Droids?"

"_No sir, Not Droids something smaller and organic. It's heading directly for the Camp." _

"I'll be there shortly Captain hold your position."

"_Yes Sir!"_ Macen ran from the Camp back to the valley overlook, but when he got there, he sensed something very strange.

"Commander, I spotted it about 10 klicks to the east. Wasn't able to get a decent look at it though." Ace handed Macen the Macrobinoculars, As Macen looked through them he spotted what the Captain was talking about.

"It looks like it's alone; Have Stitches and Jester meet me down by the speeders. We are going to take a closer look." Macen said as he handed back the binoculars.

"Sir are you sure that's wise?"

"We'll be fine Ace."

"Sir All due Respect, I think you should take more people with you. Take Knockout, Blitz, or even Frag with you sir. Just don't go out there with so few men."

"No! We will handle it Captain, just make sure your covering our backs. Get Sparrow up here to help you." Ace was about to protest when Macen cut him off.

"Now Captain!"

"Yes Sir."

Macen and his men were about 5 Meters out when he felt the Presence from before, it had only gotten stronger the closer he got.

"_Stop here and get off the bikes!" _he said over the comm. The other two slowed their speed and came to a full stop about 3 meters from the target. After they had stopped, they immediately jumped off the bikes and readied their weapons.

"Set your weapons to stun, it might just be an animal." Stitches and Jester made their adjustments to their blasters and started scanning for the Organic being.

"Sir, I've got something in my sights."

"Can you make out what it is Jester?"

"No sir, my scanners are acting funny sir, I can't make heads or tails of it."

"Switch to visual." Jester took off his helmet and looked down the scope on his blaster. "Talk to me Jester, what do you see?"

"Argh! I can't see a damn thing; whatever the hell this thing is its interfering with all our equipment."

"Alright Men be ready for anything." Macen unclipped his Lightsaber and held his finger over the switch. Macen could feel the being getting closer,

'whatever this thing is, it is extremely powerful.' he thought.

Macen could sense its fear, anger and pain. The closer it got the more intense the feeling.

"Men stay here and watch my back."

he started to walk forward, the feelings, he was sensing became clearer and more intense with every step. He felt loss, like his whole world was just taken from him and felt the pain of losing everything. He heard the rocks near a giant boulder shift, breaking his train of thought. He activated his saber and a bright Green blade sprung to life from his hilt. He walked slowly towards the boulder; he could sense the thoughts of the creature behind them. 'Please don't find me!' it said. He jumped out from behind the boulder; but when he saw what was behind it, he was shocked.

"Shhhh its okay, I'm not going to hurt you." He said comfortingly. He saw a terrified little girl shivering and huddled in the fetal position. She tried backing away from him as he approached.

"It's alright; I'm not going to hurt you, look." he deactivated his saber, and the bright green blade shrunk back down into the hilt; the little girl gasped and buried her head deeper into her knees.

"No, No, No! Look, I'm putting it down. See, I'm putting it down." He said softly as he set the saber down beside him. The girl looked up from her knees up at him for a few seconds before burying her face in them again.

"It's alright; you're safe now." he slowly moved towards her, but she ran past him and the other side of the rocks before he could grab her. As soon as she ran past the rock the last thing Macen heard was the sound of blaster fire.

"NOOO!" he cried as he picked up his saber and ran to the other side of the rocks. He found the girl lying unconscious 2 feet from the rocks.

"Sir, are you alright!?" Jester asked.

"WHAT WHERE YOU THINKING JESTER!?" Macen exclaimed as he ran towards the little girl.

"Sir I'm so sorry… my weapon has been on the fritz since we got here... I …didn't mean to…".

"STITCHES GET OVER HERE NOW!" Stitches ran past the horror-stricken Jester and knelt beside the unconscious little girl.

"Talk to me Doc! Is she going to be okay?"

"She'll live but we have to get her back to camp a.s.a.p.! I can give her something that'll stabilize her for the trip back."

"Do it!"

Stitches grabbed a small stim from his bag and injected it into her neck.

"Alright that will keep her stable for now but we have to hurry back!"

"Then we don't have a second to lose, let's go!" Macen picked up the small child and ran back towards the bike. He held her with one arm while the other steered. 'Please let her live, please let her live.' He thought as the three made their way back to camp with speed. 

Vorik Pann wasn't usually quick to lose his temper; but in certain circumstances he felt like he couldn't hold it back.

"What do you mean the Data has been erased!?" Vorik Pann shouted at his second in command. Vorik Pann was a Bothan with golden brown fur skin and Red Eyes which was rare among his kind. He was an Officer in the Republic military for almost 15 years, until he Joined the Confederacy. He was in command of a Separatist Outpost on Cato Neimoidia and was working his way up the Ranks of the Confederacy, as a competent Soldier and Officer. Right up until a couple of Jedi Came and destroyed the outpost; after that he was reprimanded and reassigned by Count Dooku to Project: Silent Step.

"well sir, it seems the Katarn's did a complete data Purge of all of their research on the Project."

"and the Device?"

"Gone as Well sir."

"BLAST! We'll have to assume that they stole it and it's hidden or destroyed." Vorik said his Temper Rising and patience thinning.

"I would find that to be Highly Unlikely that they'd destroyed it, sir." The Second in Command said. Vorik Knew he had a name but didn't bother or care to remember it. He was a Neimoidian Handpicked by Dooku to help work out the Funds and to give regular updates to the Count on a monthly basis to make sure that the Project was even worth keeping. He also doubled as the second in Command, because he had vast knowledge of military strategy and small unit tactics. However, the man lacked any actual combat experience, he was a bureaucrat, pure and simple. And up until now that only problems that they had on the project in general were technical and managerial in nature. But this was something new: Treason. That was a word that Vorik never took lightly, despite his choice to turn his back to the Republic. "and why would that be?" He asked menacingly towards the Neimoidian.

"we'll sir if it was me, I would try to hand off the data to someone I trusted and retrieve it later"

"Trust? HA! I never thought you Neimoidians knew the meaning of the word."

"any Project whether it be Scientific, Militaristic, or Public often requires the trust of the Community. Without it, nothing gets done; however, I won't argue the need to get ahead of peers and rivals. So, we do know of the word; we just find it useful when we need it and nothing more than that." The Neimoidian said, his chest puffed out as he said it. Vorik looked at him for a moment.

"so, you think someone else might be involved?"

"I am only saying what I would do." Vorik Stared at him with his dark red eyes.

"They Brought a child with them when they came to work here. Find it and bring it to me."

The Bothan turned and walked down towards the detention level which was 3 levels down from where he was. He made a right down the corridor just past the lift and told the Droid to open cell A113. As the door opened, he saw them holding each other close.

"Auberon and Myrrha Katarn; the Two brightest minds on the project. I trusted both of you to complete your task, gave every resource at my disposal, I even allow you to bring your daughter with you so she would be safe here. And what do you both do? You Gift me with Treason, Espionage! Not only did you both steal from me, you stole From the Confederacy and Gave our Secrets to the people we Broke away from in the First place to get away from there Greed and Corruption! What did you do with the Data and the Device?" he stared them down, Fury bubbling from his eyes. Both remained silent, either out of fear or Defiance; it didn't matter he needed answers and quick.

"if you tell me what you did with the device, I promise to grant you mercy. If you refuse, I will have little choice but hand you over to the Confederacy to answer for your crimes."

He looked at them with piqued interest. Neither one of them moved from there spot next to each other; and neither one said a word. 'what could possibly be so important as to throw away everything you value in life?' he thought to himself.

"I will be back shortly, if you do not tell me what I need to know when I return, I promise I shall be less generous than I am now." He said as he made his way back up to the command deck.

"What Do you mean Their Child is Gone!?" Vorik said Screaming at the Neimoidian.

"as I said she is gone." Vorik clenched his teeth and balled his fist as he walked over to the B1 Commander Droid.

"538-9! Find the Child of Auberon and Myrrha Katarn!"

"I'm afraid I can't sir." Vorik fixed his dark red eyes on the droid.

"what was that?!" he said in a menacing tone.

"Well Sir, there was nothing in the Personnel database to suggest that the people you mentioned ever brought a child here. Also, would you mind giving us a description of the Person or Animal you want us to find?" it said innocently.

Vorik's face started to turn red under his fur as soon as it said that; He calmly unclipped his blaster and blasted the Droids head off, much to the Terror of the Other Droids in the Room. Vorik Slowly let in a breath of Fresh air and let it out again to try and regain some semblance of a Calm Composure. But even that was getting harder every time something went wrong. Having to rely on the Droids to help him fix problems every time something did go wrong was like Relying on a Jawa to not steal your things when you're not looking.

"Alright; 317-6 Come here!" he said calmly but with enough anger still in his voice to make anything Cautious.

"Uh… Yes Sir?" it said as it approached and stood directly where the previous Droid stood.

"Congratulations You're Promoted! The Child you're looking for is 5 years old with Brown Hair and Brown Eyes! NOW GET TO IT!" The Droid flinched slightly then stood back up straight.

"Oh, alright sir; don't worry will find that…thing, Uh, What Species is it again sir?" Vorik's ground his teeth and if you were looking hard enough you could almost see steam coming out his furry pointed ears.

"IT'S A HUMAN GIRL, YOU USELESS PIECE OF BANTHA POODOO!"

"Oh, don't worry Sir well find her; you can count on us!"

it said with the Most optimistic tone the Droid was programed for. Vorik let in another Breath then released it again.

"Just get it done! NOW!"

the Droid walked over to the group on the command deck and started to give orders to his New Subordinates

"alright men, we need to form a search party and scout the Complex and the Outer Perimeter."

"Rodger Rodger."

As soon as the Droids left Vorik let out all the Pent-up Rage into one Furious scream of Frustration. 'Why did it have to be me?'

2 hours after they arrived back Macen brought the little girl into the medical tent where stitches got to work.

"How's she doing Stitch?" Macen asked softly.

"She'll be alright sir." Macen let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding. "Is it serious?"

"Nothing fatal sir, took a nasty shoulder hit from the blaster but she'll be okay. It may take her some time to heal, but other than that she's mostly healthy."

"Mostly healthy?"

"Malnourished, and bordering on dehydration. She must have been out there a long time before we found her."

Macen turned his head to look at her. She was sound asleep with an IV and bacta pouch attached to her arm. He stretched out his hand towards her and closed his eyes. Focusing all his senses on the little girl lying on the bed.

"I can still feel her pain, her grief. She's consumed with fear." He pulled back his hand and opened his eyes, refocusing his attention on Stitches.

"Not really surprising sir. I mean after all she's only 5; she's not going to understand any of this for a long time." Stitches walked over to another patient sitting upright on another bed on the other side of the tent and started to look over his results on the data pad.

Macen gave Stitches a Curious Expression.

"How do you know she's 5?"

Stitches turned his head to look at Macen. "I did a bio scan of her when we brought her in, 5 years, 1 month and 26 days old." He turned his head back to continue his work on the Other Patient.

"I'd like to look at the bio scan results."

"sure, just give me a minute with Frag here and ill be right with you."

"Hey Commander!"

"Hey Frag, What Brings you back here again?"

"oh, the Usual."

"Too Much Rancors Breath last night, and you couldn't stand upright for your watch duty this Morning?"

"ill have you Know Mace, that I can Stand upright while completely blasted. I just can't walk straight. Or see where I'm going very well."

Macen softly chuckled at his remark.

"that's Commander Towbur to you Frag."

"AH! Your no fun Commander."

"I can be less fun than I am now Frag, remember that." Frag immediately shut up after that.

Stitches waved over Macen over to him and They walked over to the Computer and Stitches brought up her file.

"Not much in here or at least not much we don't already know." Macen said as he looked through the file.

"I would have done a more extensive search, but with our communications still down; and us having to keep radio silence until the end of the mission, there's nothing more I can tell you other than she's healthy."

"When will I be able to talk with her?"

"A few hours, but I wouldn't recommend that sir. That kid has been through hell, we need to give her time to adjust to her surroundings."

"Alright Lieutenant let me know when I can speak with her."

"Of Course, Commander. OH! Commander one more thing, I found this device sown into her clothing. I don't know what it is or what it's for." Stitches handed Macen the Small disk like item.

"Curious." Macen said aloud.

"also, I found this data drive next to the Device."

"Thanks Stitches I'll go talk to Goodbye about this."

"I would also go talk to Jester Sir. He hasn't said a word since he got to base."

"Don't worry about that Stitches, I'll make sure to have a long talk with him about this." Macen walked away from the Medical tent towards the main Communications dish.

Stitches was one of the best medics in the Republic and served under Commander Wolffe and General Plo Koon for 2 years until one day they captured a Separatist leader on Felucia. The man in charge of the Battle Droids on Felucia was Cormac Ginny, a high-ranking member of the Separatist senate.

Macen never received any full details about what happened; all he knew was that General Plo Koon told Stitches to look after Ginny and patch him up, only to find him dead an hour later in the tent where Stitches patched him up. No Formal Charges were brought up, but the circumstances were suspicious at best, so they Demoted Stitches and placed him under Macens Command. and he has been with them ever since.

"Goodbye? Are you here?" Macen called out when he reached the Main Communications dish.

"One Moment Sir!" he called back. A few seconds later Goodbye crawled out from under the Main communications dish.

"Now what can I help you with sir?"

"Do you know what this is Goodbye?"

"Oooh; now that is a nice piece of machinery. Where did you find it sir?"

"On a 5-year-old that was heading directly for camp."

"The One that Jester shot sir?"

"How did you know about that?"

"Word travels fast, besides Jester isn't exactly taking it well, you should talk to him soon sir."

"I'll talk to him once I've finished here, now can you tell me what this is Sergeant?"

Goodbye looked over the device and brought it over to a nearby desk and took off his helmet. Every once in a while, he would let out a small "hmmm." As he continued to study the small disk device.

"Well sir if I had to guess I would say that this is some kind of Jammer."

"A Jammer!? What gives you that idea?"

"Well for starter's sir, I couldn't see a thing out of my helmet while I brought it over to the bench. Second this thing gives out a low frequency pulse that's detectable if you know what you're looking for, which I do. And if I had to guess the range on this thing, I would wager that it has a 10-meter area bandwidth affecting the most obvious equipment. Visual scanners, comms, and weapons.

And lastly, I heard rumors that the Seps where developing some new kind of Jamming equipment over the last 2 years. It looks like they finished it."

"But that doesn't explain how this little girl got it or how it was sown into her clothing."

"Don't know what to tell you on that one sir." Goodbye said as he handed back the device. Macen pulled out the thin data drive from the same pouch and handed it to goodbye.

"Here, this was also found on her it may contain some clues that we might be able to use."

"alright sir I'll take a look" He took the Drive from Macens hand and plugged the data drive into the computer near the Dish, he attempted to access the drive when the computer beeped and error message at him.

"Sorry sir, but unfortunately the data on this thing is Encrypted it'll take a few hours before I can crack it."

Goodbye ran one of his decryption algorithms on the drive. then crawled right back under the dish to continue repairs.

"How long until communications are back up?"

"Shouldn't be too much longer sir, I think I can have her back up and running in 48 hours max. provided if you want me to focus on this or the drive sir?"

"Do what you can, in the meantime, I think I'll go have that talk with Jester."

Goodbye was another misfit in Macens unit that Specialized in Communications and Engineering. He had earned his nickname by telling a Jedi Master to "Kriff off." over the Comm during a Skirmish with a separatist scouting party in the outer rim. The Republic demoted him and sent him to Macen's unit.

The walk from the Dish to the Barracks was short but left plenty of time to think of something to say to Jester when he talked to him.

when he entered, he saw the rest of his unit talking, drinking, and gambling. Any other Jedi would frown on one of these; but Macen didn't really mind what his men did in their free time so long as they did their jobs, worked hard, and followed his orders. If they had cause to disobey his orders Macen would still punish them but would go easy on them, if they had a very good reason to disobey.

They were like family and treated him as they would a father or older brother instead of a commander. Macen never had a family, or at least none that he really remembered. the closest thing he had to a father was his Master: Taron Malicos. Confident, courageous, and a very Powerful Jedi Knight, He Taught Macen Everything he knew, and when the time came when the council asked if Macen was ready to take the trials Master Malicos said yes without hesitation.

The trials themselves were arduous, testing his limits to their breaking point. But he overcame them all and became a Knight of the Jedi Order like his master. A few months later the Clone Wars broke out and Macen had a new trial to face; being a Commander of his own Legion of Clones.

Macen walked over to Jester's bunk and sat at the bed opposite of him. "Commander!" Jester said surprised.

"Men If you would Clear out For a Moment Please!" The Clones looked at one another for a brief moment and then left, leaving Macen and Jester in the Barracks.

"Now Private Let's talk about what happened." Jester sat down onto his bunk staring at his commander with a look of Terror and Guilt.

"Jester, I have had to call attention to your actions during this Mornings incident with the little girl. I cannot deny the fact that you were following my orders and believed your Blaster was set for stun. However, what you did was rash, and very dangerous, that could have been Stitches if I had sent him over first, or me you could have hit if we had coming barreling out the other side of the rocks."

Jesters look of guilt left a pained expression on his face.

"I didn't come here to make you feel worse jester, I came by to let you know to be more careful in the future. I also came to inform you that the little girl is alright, she should make a full recovery. I Also wanted let you know that the incident was not completely your fault."

Jester looked up at Macen confused.

"What do you mean sir?"

Macen pulled out the small disk device from his belt pouch and handed it to Jester. "What's this sir?"

"It's a Jammer or at least that's what Goodbye thinks it is. That would explain why your equipment was not working or why your blaster malfunctioned."

Jesters face washed over with joy and relief once he heard the news.

"So, what happens now sir?"

Macen Contemplated what to do with Jester, He was only following orders, but that doesn't excuse what he did.

"I want you to take Watch duty in the south. I also want a full report of Everything that happens in the area. If there are any more devices like this one, I want to have someone who knows what to look for over there."

"Yes sir!" Jester Said to Macen with a hint of Dejection in his voice.

Jester was Another Misfit; however, he was one of the Original Misfits that Got assigned to Macens unit at the start of the war along with Ace, Blaze, and Bull. He got his nickname by always trying to crack jokes, even at the worst of times.

Jester turned and walked out of the Barracks. "_Commander, do you read me?"_ Macen heard his comm beep.

"this is Commander Towbur, what's the situation?"

"S_ir, this is Goodbye, I've finished the decryption of the data._" Macen was dumbfounded.

"I thought you said it would take you hours to decrypt that thing?"

"_I thought so too sir, but who ever owned this drive either was really bad at encrypting things or they made whoever found this thing slightly easier to access it. Point being sir you should get over here and review the data, there's something you need to see_."

"alright I'm on my way, Commander Towbur out." Macen ran back towards the communications tent. When he arrived, he found Ace already in the tent with goodbye standing over the console.

"Good your finally here, you need to see this sir."

"what is it?"

"it's a recording." Goodbye pushed a few buttons on the console and the holographic image came to life. It showed two humans a man and a woman wearing lab gear and holding each other's hands.

"_Alright, I guess I'll go first then. My Name is Auberon Katarn and this is my wife Myrrha, we are both members of the Separatist Alliance Science division. We were tasked with creating a small handheld Jamming device capable of disrupting all Enemy Equipment from Comms… to enemy ships." _

The Holographic Auberon looked down at the ground for a moment with his head held low in shame.

"_the Goal was simple for the project; but as we continued working on it, we developed a numerous amount of problems getting the equipment to work successfully with B1 and B2 Model battle droids." _The Holographic Myrrha said, her hand tightly holding her husbands.

"_we dedicated out lives to this project, with the hope of ending the war; but an incident occurred 2 weeks ago with our daughter." _Auberon continued_. _

"_Her Name is Kira. She started to show signs… Signs normally associated with one who is sensitive to the phenomenon the Jedi Call "the Force". The incident itself was… shocking to say the least. We had just got off our shift on the project and we came home to find Kira playing with her toys; but they were all floating in the air." _Myrrha said.

"_after that we were scared, desperate even. So, we are going to do something that betrays everything we believe in…"_

they looked at each other for a moment and nodded their heads.

"_we know there is a republic outpost on the planet close by. We will send all the data on the project as well as the prototype, to the outpost in exchange for our daughters' safe passage off world to Coruscant and to the jedi temple." _Myrrha continued.

"_we are not turning our backs against the confederacy; but we are willing to risk everything for our daughter's well-being. To however finds this, please bring her back to the jedi safely and hope that in time she will understand what we have done for her."_

The couple held each other in an embrace before the holographic image faded. Just then the computer started going through all the files on the drive. Blueprints, schematics, calculations and test runs on the project called: Silent Step. "well let's see what we have to work with." Goodbye said as he rummaged through the data. the only thing on Macens mind was the little girl named Kira and how where they going to complete the mission with this new complication.


End file.
